They Blog For You

Last night I was put through my paces by an audience in Oxford on BBC Question Time. I was quizzed on the NHS, social mobility, arts funding cuts and the AV referendum. You can watch the episode again here . We had a feisty debate on the NHS - unbelievable for [...]

It emerged in the Budget debate which ended today in the Commons that the need for spending cuts is far from the inevitability that Osborne has always claimed.   The independent OBR estimates of growth for the next 5 years, albeit recently scaled down, are still 1.7% this year, 2.5% next year, [...]

                 I was surprised how the government handled media interviews about the TUC protest against the cuts. They could have used them to set out more of the detail of the difficult financial situaiton we find ourselves in. They could have used it to ask how come we are going [...]

I couldn't let the Budget debates pass without putting in a word for small businesses. I want the Government to look at ways to improve bank lending - it is the only real way that small businesses can achieve any sort of decent growth and transform into larger businesses. The [...]

Today Danny Alexander, along with Christine Jardine the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Inverness & Nairn, met with Adrian Gray the Managing Director of AJG Parcels in Inverness to discuss the impact of the coalition government's action to cut fuel duty. The government announced in the budget its decision to cut fuel [...]

The capital gains tax paid this year will reflect transactions at the old rate prior to the hike from this government. The OBR forecasts £3.2 billion in receipts. For 2012-13, when the new higher rate system will be bedded down, they forecast just £2.9 billion, a fall of a tenth. [...]

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, will be running the latest seminar in the series of her 'Next Generation' business seminars. Begun last year in collaboration with City College and Howes Percival LLP, these meetings bring together Norwich students, entrepreneurs and established local firms to discuss the skills and business [...]

But no more. Today's budget was a drama-drained drone of yesterday's press releases. In his day Gordon Brown was apocalyptic with a Heathcliff booming voice and contrived surprises. Nothing of any significance can be delivered in Osborne's squeaking falsetto. Today I had a choice. Attend my 24th budget speech or chair the [...]

               I spoke in the Commons after the budget and will post that speech tomorrow when text is available.               The budget confirms the same plan as before – deficit reduction through big increases in tax receipts. It relies on above trend growth for three years. I will comment more tomorrow [...]

THE BUDGET 2011: An MP today welcomed the announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the Norwich Research Park will share in £100 million of investment in science and research facilities. The Park includes the John Innes Centre, one of the world’s leading centres for [...]

As is usually the case, this is a very political Budget.   It will change the economic future of this country hardly at all.   The purpose of this Budget is camouflage to distract attention from the Great Axe that is about to fall within the next two weeks and to give [...]

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, today commented on fuel prices in advance of the Budget: "It's clear from many individuals, families and businesses locally that fuel prices are one thing hitting very hard at the moment. I strongly appreciate how much fuel prices affect people in and around Norwich, both [...]

As readers will know, when public spending is rising by £90 billion a year over five years, it is difficult to see why so many think the main adjustment to deal with our overspending is being made by the public sector. The truth is, that so far all the adjustment [...]

17 March 2011 Alan Johnson voted in favour of the below Opposition Motion tabled by the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury last night to reverse the Government’s VAT rise on petrol and diesel. The motion was defeated. “That this House recognises that rising world oil, food and commodity prices are increasing [...]

After my blog yesterday mentioning the suffragettes, I was asked to say that it was Emily Davison, the famous suffragette, who hid in parliament to be able to put on her census form that she was resident at the House of Commons on Census Day. Tony Benn put up a [...]

                     Money has been easy for the UK public sector. The 0.5% interest rate is the one that applies only to government. Government has enjoyed using it to the full, borrowing collosal sums on the back of it.                   Money has been much tighter in the non bank  private sector. Effective [...]

This blog has been boring on about the scandal that is UK defence procurement - some might say obsessively. I've written about the way that the budget seems to be spent in the interests of the contractors, rather than the armed forces here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here. [...]

  Why do so few people care about this mega-scandal? Three years I argued in European Forum in Rome that the Galileo Project was a useless extravagance. I was howled at by French MPs. I raised some questions too in the Commons on this insanity. It’s pure European nationalism, especially French [...]

I've just received this letter from Edinburgh Council UNISON branch about their campaign to keep funding for employment programmes in Edinburgh. It looks like an important campaign to support, and you can find out how in the letter.SAVE EDINBURGH’S SERVICES FOR THE UNEMPLOYED!!The Scottish Government is planning to cut nearly [...]

MoD has run out of money again, so it would seem. Alas, we shouldn't be surprised. As long as we continue to allow a handful of powerful defence contractors to carve up the budget, there will never be enough.Labour's Defence Industrial Strategy deliberately restricts the range of companies [...]